📖Scripture:
“Coming to Him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight, you also, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”1 Peter 2:4-5
🔎Examination:
The Apostle Peter reveals that our “coming to Him” is not an altar-call or moment of salvation, but a continual movement of the regenerate heart toward the living Christ. This desire flows not from human decision but from new birth by the Holy Spirit (1 Pet 1:23). Those once dead in sin now crave “WORD-derived pure spiritual milk” (1 Pet 2:2) because God’s grace creates an appetite for the divine! Stones don’t move themselves—God draws His own.
Christ is the cornerstone promised in Isaiah 28:16 and vindicated in the resurrection. The living-stone imagery fulfills the tabernacle foundations (Exod 25:8-9) and Solomon’s temple stones prepared at the quarry (1 Kgs 6:7). Yet Christ is greater than both: the rejected stone of Psalm 118:22 chosen by the Heavenly Father. Every temple stone, altar, and sacrifice anticipated Jesus.
The ELECT (not merely “believers”) are “living stones” because the Holy Spirit joins them to the risen Christ, forming a spiritual house where God dwells not in buildings but in His covenant people. This is not metaphorical sentiment but redemptive-historical fulfillment: the eschatological (final and enduring) temple is the Church, Christ’s Body and Bride (Eph 2:19–22).
In Christ, the TRUE ISRAEL, the Church therefore fulfills Israel’s priestly calling (Exod 19:6). No ethnic boundary, ceremonial hierarchy, or earthly priesthood stands between the elect and Christ’s finished work. Our priesthood is not earned; it is bestowed by union with the High Priest. Identity precedes activity. We do not become priests by effort; we act as priestly ambassadors of the GOSPEL because God has made us so in Christ.
Spiritual sacrifices are not meritorious works but lives surrendered in grateful worship, acceptable only “through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5). To insert human performance as mediation—whether Catholicism’s sacramentalism, Mormonism’s heretical temple ordinances, or the NAR’s earthly dominion schemes—is to trade Christ’s sufficiency for ritual or self-exaltation. False religion always reintroduces a ladder God has already removed.
Peter’s temple typology exposes nominalism. Israel’s stones were cut “offsite,” foreshadowing the Holy Spirit’s sovereign work in regeneration. New birth is not achieved by human decision or noise but by the Living Stone, the eternal Word. Grace chisels hearts; faith responds.
Those who are offended, stumble, and reject the Cornerstone were appointed for such (1 Pet 2:8). Divine sovereignty does not cancel human responsibility or guilt (Rom 1:18-21); unbelief is willful suppression of the TRUTH. God ordains both mercy and judgment, and no one rejects Christ in innocence.
The elect, however, exist to proclaim “the excellencies of Him who called [them] out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pet 2:9). The goal of election is worship and witness—God’s GLORIOUS PRESENCE dwelling in and with His people. What the tabernacle and temple signified—unbroken communion—has arrived in Christ and His Church.
To miss this pattern is to repeat Babel: building for human glory. To behold it is to enter the true temple and know the living God. Every stone finds its meaning in Christ, and every faithful follower of King Jesus finds identity, purpose, and endurance in continually coming to Him… The Living Stone.
🤺Action:
Examine whether your approach to Christ is continuous, relational craving; sporadic religious duty; or selfish strip mining for personal benefit.
Read 1 Peter 1:23-2:3 today. Mark every reference to the Word as imperishable seed and pure milk.
What sacrifices have you offered over the past year? Were they truly the spiritual sacrifices of a redeemed life purely out of thanksgiving, or did they flow from attempts to earn favor or blessings from God?
Ask the LORD to help you identify any areas in your life where human performance still blocks your relationship with God; then renounce it explicitly before the throne of grace.
🧠Reflection:
The ELECT are not bricks in a human institution but living stones mortared by resurrection and relational union with Christ. Let the Holy Spirit search whether Christ has become your precious cornerstone, or whether you still stumble over, reject, and are offended by His exclusive headship.
Click the following link for a short video version of today's post:
https://youtube.com/shorts/Jq7oFo8iGMs?si=5rQNvwp2Bx0nBvzG
Blessings & love,
Kevin M. Kelley
Pastor
BigIslandChristianChurch.com
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